19 - Matt Barnes, RHP, University of Connecticut
26 - Blake Swihart, C, Cleveland High School, Rio Rancho, New Mexico
36 - Henry Owens, LHP, Edison High School, Huntington Beach, California
40 - Jackie Bradley Jr., OF, University of South Carolina
Theo Epstein:
[W]e felt like some things broke our way, and we were able to get four players we feel really good about. Two high school [players], two college [players], two pitchers, two hitters. The hitters are up-the-middle guys with strong defensive tools and bats that we really like. Both pitchers we feel project as starters in the big leagues. We're real happy with how it went.Sadly, Barnes says his favourite player is Joba Chamberlain. ... Links: SoSH threads on each player, Sox Prospects posts, and Full Count's wrap-up.
Gerry Callahan's Herald column is both a love-fest for Adrian Gonzalez -- "He's been here in cynical Boston for two months and not once have you heard his name uttered in the same breath as the words overrated, overpaid or overwhelmed." -- and a multi-pronged slam of Manny Ramirez. ... Why do so many writers feel that any time they write something positive about a Red Sox player they have to insult another player? (Did you know that Manny "bilked" the team for $160 million? I wonder how much the Herald has been "bilked" by Callahan?)
The Herald's Scott Lauber takes a look at Jacoby Ellsbury's intense off-season training program and how it has paid off this year. ... Rich Hill stated on Friday that an MRI revealed that the ulnar ligament in his left arm was "three-quarters of the way torn". Hill said he would get a second opinion about potential rehab options. In 2009, while with the Orioles, Hill had season-ending shoulder surgery after suffering a torn labrum.
If I were really cynical I would say he just made up his mind, he's going to get his elbow cleared out, and then he'll come back in 2013 in Japan. ... He had put it out in Japan that he was going to have Tommy John surgery before he even got to Los Angeles. I find it very odd. ...Jerry Remy said the same thing on the Dennis & Callahan show:
He did help get them the World Series and pitched well in Game 3 of the World Series in Colorado. ... [A]t times he was a pretty good pitcher, his first two years. ... He never performed as well as the expectations surrounding him. I don't think he really made a great effort to adjust to this culture. ... One of his agents said to me, he doesn't trust people. ...
They allowed him to do everything he wanted to do at first, and it wasn't working. ... It was exasperating, him going out and throwing hard for forty minutes at 3:30 in the afternoon before a start at 7 or 8.
Communication-wise, pitching-wise, it's just been a bumpy road all the way through. I think that once he's gone for a couple of years, nobody will remember Daisuke. ... He had his own set way of doing things ... They tried and tried and tried to change the way he did things, and he was stubborn about it.
Another writer slamming Ramirez? Yawn. What's it been, three years since he was traded to Los Angeles?
ReplyDeleteSaying your favorite baseball player is Joba Chamberlain is like saying your favorite hobby is going to the dentist: unremarkable on a good day, painful to deal with on a bad day, and just all together a confusing response. Plus, driving after a long visit with either can be dangerous or even illegal.
ReplyDeleteI bet his favorite football player is Jeff Reed.
"once he's gone for a couple of years, nobody will remember Daisuke."
ReplyDeleteI think that's the one thing you CAN guarantee, that the guy, and everything surrounding his coming to the U.S. and his time here, will NOT be forgotten.
I was psyched to see the Sox draft a kid from Bethel, a town near my hometown (and the hometown of Thurston Moore)--then I saw the Joba bit. But hey, maybe if he hangs around we'll get more converts in Fairfield County, some more battles won in the in-between land war.
I might be the only one who was disappointed when I learned that Daisuke had a season ending injury. It looked like he might be ready to have a good season after those two stellar starts earlier in the year, like perhaps he might have "turned the corner" or some other such sports cliche. If he had, it would have been a big FU to all the slagging I had read about him on various comment boards and blogs (looking at you PA), and no matter who it is, I like when people show up their naysayers. It's not like there haven't been other overhyped overpaid and underwhelming players. Anyway, he's gone now it seems, and we won't have him to kick around anymore.
ReplyDeletehere is the quote from pinstripesplus.com
ReplyDeleteAllan if you had a link there already sorry for stepping on your toes.
Kevin Levine-Flandrup: What is your outward expression on the mound like? Are you more calm and collected like a Mariano Rivera, or do you let it out like a Joba Chamberlain?
Matt Barnes: Oh, the Joba type, Joba is my favorite player! I think when I’m on the mound I try to stay calm and collected